The Happy Workday of a Volunteer

As I’d started my volunteer day at the information desk at the libraries, a young mom entered with a little boy of about seven or eight, the young mom stated in a sort of nervous and excited tone of voice, “I’d heard, that the art museum has the collection of Mr. Zhen Yang’s work, is it on display?”

Mr. Zhen Yang is an artist who’d worked in the area of photography for over decades, the Art Museum had three of his pieces, “Remains of the Lotus”, and this mom was, Mr. Jeng Yang’s granddaughter.

She’d stated that she’d lived with her grandparents from when she was younger, that she was very close to her grandfather, and as she got older, she’d immigrated to the U.S. with her parents, she’d pointed to the little boy, “As I was pregnant with him, my grandfather died, he’d not gotten the opportunity to meet his own young great grandson. I’d often told my son about the life his great grandfather lived as a photographer, and, as I’d taken him back here to visit, I’d wanted to introduce him to the work of his great grandfather.”

not my photograph…

I’d opened up the search engines, and I’d found, that there were, three of Mr. Yang’s works kept her. As the young mom looked at the computer screen, she’d exclaimed, “Yes, Yes, Yes! These three are it, the “Broken Lotus Series”, can we see it now?” at which time, the librarian, Yu-Shuan got closer and told her, “Currently, these aren’t on display, but, they should all be stored in the storage, let me go ask the members of the classical collections for you.

As the worker from the classical collections came, he’d understood, that this young mother was only in Taipei for the day, that tomorrow and the day after, she’s headed south, then, to Hong Kong. The member of the team said to her, “Wait for me for ten minutes, let me see if I can come up with a way.” Not long thereafter, the worker carried a thick volume of the collections over, and, flipped to the page, where Mr. Zheng Yang’s work was on. She’d explained, “The storages are off-limits to the public, I can’t let you in, to see the work of Mr. Zhen Yang, this volume is a classical catalogue for the twentieth anniversary of the museums, with the works and Mr. Yang’s life in there, free for you to take with.”

The young mother patted the photographs by Mr. Zhen Yang, she was very happy, very grateful, with tears in her eyes, she’d told the little boy, “This, is the work of your great grandfather!”, and she’d thanked us for our help. Watching the two of them, mother and son leave gladly, I think, this, is an alternative sort of finding one’s own roots! Being able to help out all we can, my heart felt light and happy, such, a great day, to be working, as a volunteer.

Because being a volunteer, your job is to help people out, and, this time, you’d gone above AND beyond, to assist this woman, in finding the works of her grandfather, and, it’d helped this woman, complete her search to her roots, introducing her son to her own childhood memories…